Monday, September 14, 2009

Why Sci Fi?

I'm so clever... or something.

Science fiction has a bad rap I think... The Star.... Trek.. talking in spurts.... must save.... the universe... that didn't help, and neither did the sci fi horror genre, with puppets and goo representing our greatest fears.

But sci fi is so much more than that. Maybe later I will elaborate some on the variety inside the sci fi umbrella, but for now, I'll just call it all sci fi.

In all science fiction, the world that the author creates is based, however loosely, on our own. The characters, however alien, came from a human mind. So, now whether there is a space invasion of a poor defenseless planet, a vicious space battle between dreadnoughts and battleships, with lasers and photon/neutron/proton torpedoes, the world that spans galaxies has roots in our own.

which brings me to the answer to the question: we can understand where we are, where we have come from, and where we are going in the context of science fiction. the farther we try to deviate from our reality, the more we define what that reality is. the more we set forth what "alien" is, we define what it means to be human. Science Fiction sets us free from the chains of how things have to be, and pushes us into a realm where anything is possible, because in the future, we have (insert futuristic, vaguely scientific device name here) which means we can go farther, live longer, fight better, learn more.

So of all the various genres, Science Fiction is my preference, for the aforesaid reasons.